Kimi Raikkonen has no concerns that long-time Formula 1 engineering ally Mark Slade may not be following him to Ferrari next season.

The Finn formed a close bond with Slade during his spell at McLaren, and was instrumental in getting Lotus to hire him when he returned to F1 at the start of last season.

Although some consideration had been given for Slade to follow Raikkonen to Ferrari, it is now looking likely that his new Maranello bosses will use someone from their current talent pool to work with Raikkonen instead.

Despite admitting that Slade’s presence at Lotus had been important for getting him back up to speed in F1, he says that not having him at Ferrari will not be a problem.

"I enjoy working with him and we have been achieving good results with him," explained Raikkonen.

"But I know the people from Ferrari, and I achieved good results there.

"For me, it was important to have him here [at Lotus] when I came because he was in the team, he knew the team and I know him.

"It made my life easier and I could get into the team slightly easier, which is why I wanted him here to work with me.

"It has been a good two years but we see what happens next year."

Raikkonen was initially engineered by Chris Dyer when he joined Ferrari in 2007, before Alonso’s current engineer Andrea Stella took over in 2009.

Stella has formed a strong partnership with Fernando Alonso since then, and there appears little reason to break them up.

A good feeling with the car, but an early return to garage after an FP2 spin left the Iceman feeling philosophical but optimistic at Suzuka

How was your day?

The car felt pretty good. Of course, there are some areas we can improve but I’m quite satisfied with the progress we made. In FP2 I spun the car so we did miss some of the long run laps we would have got this afternoon. I was on a fast run when the wind changed and this can affect the car sometimes. At least we didn’t do any damage to the car so the crew won’t have any extra work. It’s not a big drama as we know the track pretty well. We have a few changes for tomorrow so let’s see what happens.

Were there any consequences from the spin??

There was no damage to the car so there’s no problem there. Maybe we didn’t do as many laps as we wanted but it’s not a big deal. I spun; it happens sometimes. It was quite windy today which didn’t help. It was a bit tricky at that part of the track all day and I just pushed a bit too much.

You’ve looked strong on pace all day…

The car’s been more to my liking here – at least today – than it’s been for the last few races, especially over one lap which is a good thing. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything for the rest of the weekend. Tomorrow is a new day and it might be a completely different story, so we’ll have to wait and see.